


The Health Assignment

by not_so_average_fangirl



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies), bechloe - Fandom
Genre: F/F, beca and chloe, bechloe - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-27
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2019-12-25 09:52:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18258887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/not_so_average_fangirl/pseuds/not_so_average_fangirl
Summary: Chloe Beale, the school’s most popular, superficial– and secretly nerdy– girl, gets partnered with Beca Mitchell; the charming and sassy, “I don’t care about my grades,” alt girl– who also lives next door– for the most important health assignment of the year. Will their partnership work out? Or will their differences be too much of a hurdle? (Bechloe High School AU)





	1. Partners

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys! This new fic is inspired by a story I wrote when I was in middle school. With a few tweaks I thought it would make a cute Bechloe fic, so here it is!
> 
> For those of you also currently reading my other Bechloe fic, "I Hate You," don't worry! That fic is no where near done, and I will be updating both stories simultaneously.
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy this one! :)
> 
> Now, without further adieu, I give you: "The Health Assignment"

“Chloe! Come on, you’ve been in there for half an hour already!” Chloe’s older sister, Carrie, was pounding on the bathroom door in an attempt to get her younger sister out as soon as possible. “Finish your makeup in your own damn room!” 

Chloe rolled her eyes. If only Carrie knew how it was her fault Chloe was like this in the first place. A big sister was supposed to be a positive leader. Someone who always supported and helped their younger siblings blossom into their own person. Not brainwash them into acting like an exact clone of them.

Thank God college was just a year and a half away. With her Junior year almost over, Chloe was looking forward to graduating high school and leaving to a new school far, far away from her hometown.

Atlanta was great, but Chloe was tired of being who she was there. She wanted a change. A fresh start. A place where she could be herself and not have to worry about what others thought about her.

“Chloe!”

But for now, Chloe needed to get her ass out of the bathroom before her sister kicked the door down.

“I’m coming!”

With a groan, Chloe packed up her makeup and opened the door, screaming when she found her sister with a bright green mask smeared all over her face.

"Bout time you get out,” Carrie said, pushing passed Chloe to get into the bathroom and putting a hand on the door. “I had to wash this thing off ten minutes ago!”

Before Chloe could give any sort of response, Carrie slammed the door in her face.

“Bitch,” Chloe muttered under her breath, sighing before turning to walk back to her room.

* * *

Luckily Chloe’s morning routine was almost complete when her sister rudely kicked her out of the bathroom they shared, and she finished in time to get to the bus stop early.

She had enough time to heat up some Pop Tarts or Eggo waffles, but with Carrie already giving her shit this early in the morning, Chloe wanted nothing more than to just get out of the house.

She sat at the bus stop in peace, reading over the upcoming chapter in her Chemistry book, until the sound of heavy breathing and running suddenly came from her left. Chloe looked to see who it was and quickly shoved her Chemistry book into her bag.

“Shit,” Beca panted, one hand holding the strap of her backpack, while the other held onto her chest. “Did I miss the bus?” she asked.

Chloe quirked a brow at her, “If you did, you think I’d still be here?”

“Wow,” Beca said, her eyes opening wider for a second as she sat down on the opposite side of the bench. “Someone woke up on the wrong side of their throne today.”

Chloe narrowed her eyes, “Funny,” she said, flipping her hair over her shoulder as she scrolled through her phone. “Maybe if you actually put some effort into your morning routine and woke up earlier, you wouldn’t have to worry about missing the bus for once.”

“Touché,” Beca said, shrugging. She smirked to herself before quietly stretching across the bench and making Chloe yelp when she suddenly appeared right next to her ear. “But where would the fun be in that?”

Chloe groaned as she glared at her and scooted her body away from Beca, making Beca laugh.

“You’re incorrigible,” Chloe muttered, shaking her head and looking back down at her phone.

“Ooh,” Beca said, leaning back to sit on her side. “That’s a pretty big word for you, Princess.” Chloe looked at her again, but this time, she was straight up annoyed. “Didn’t know they taught such vocabulary in the Royal Academy.”

Chloe smiled, sarcastically, “Surprised you even know what it means.”

Beca snorted, “Who says I do?”

Chloe’s smile fell and she rolled her eyes.

Beca Mitchell had been a pain in her ass since her family moved in next door four years ago. Chloe thought it would be nice having another girl around who wasn’t her sister, but Beca quickly gained a reputation of getting into trouble and slacking off in school, which were qualities Chloe could **not** risk getting tangled up in.

Chloe had goals. She had a specific future she was working towards, and she going to let some pretty, little, alt girl get in the way of that.

Oh, yeah… that was another problem.

Chloe harbored a dark secret she swore she wouldn’t expose until she reached college.

She was gay.

It wasn’t too much of a big deal to be gay in their neck of the woods. Atlanta was a pretty progressive city, after all. Hell, Beca Mitchell was an out and proud lesbian, and all that ever did was up her popularity, if anything.

But Chloe already had an image to maintain that had pretty much been thrust upon her by her sister many years ago. After following it for so long, it was like Chloe didn’t even know how to be anyone else. At least not in her current surroundings.

She was sure a new state, a new school, and new peers would give her that _“umph”_ she needed to bring out her true self. Chloe wasn’t this superficial, makeup and fashion obsessed “popular” girl who only cared about shopping and boys.

No. In fact, Chloe didn’t really care much for any of those things. Science, music and girls were what truly fascinated her, and Chloe couldn’t wait to be free to explore them all.

But until then, Chloe was forced to maintain her fake, plastic facade, making sure to never give **_any_** hints towards the fact that she actually had a secret crush on Beca Mitchell.

She had managed to keep her shit together this long, so, what was one more year and a half?

The bus arrived a moment later and Chloe was the first to stand up and board. She smiled when she spotted her best friends, Aubrey and Stacie, waving at her from their usual middle seat and walked towards them to take the empty seat next to them.

“Hey, guys,” Chloe greeted, placing her bag next to her so she could turn into the aisle to face them.

“Hey,” Aubrey smiled.

“Morning, Chloe,” Stacie grinned, stretching her legs toward Chloe to get her to look at her feet.

Chloe gasped when her eyes landed on what Stacie was trying to show off.

"Oh my gosh, I love your shoes, Stace!” Chloe fake gushed, taking in the red and gold heels. “Are they new?”

Stacie nodded, “You know it. Seven-hundred and twenty-five dollars new.”

Chloe’s jaw dropped, “What?!” Stacie smirked and nodded again. “You’re dad bought you seven-hundred and twenty-five dollar sho–”

“Hate to interrupt the girly-fest,” Beca suddenly said, smiling tightly. “But if you could just–” She nudged Chloe’s legs with her foot, and pushed them to the side. “Move out of the way, that’d be great.” Her smile didn’t falter when Chloe glared at her and she winked as she took a dramatic step forward.

“God, she’s annoying,” Aubrey muttered, watching Beca sit between two boys at the back of the bus.

“I think she’s kinda hot,” Stacie smirked, earning a swat on the arm from Aubrey.

“Stacie!” she said, making Stacie laugh. “That’s gross.”

Stacie looked at her, “Have you always been homophobic?” she teased.

Aubrey rolled her eyes, “I’m not homophobic. I just don’t like Beca Mitchell. Her attitude sucks and she annoys the shit out of me.” She then turned her attention to Chloe, “I mean, you live next to her. Don’t you agree?”

Chloe had been a little distracted by watching Beca as well, but not in the way Aubrey was, and she quickly snapped out of her thoughts to respond.

“Hm?” Chloe hummed, blinking. “Oh, yeah. Totes. She’s super annoying.”

  _And so,_ **_so_ ** _hot…_

* * *

Between maintaining her facade and actually trying to pay attention in class, Chloe was mentally exhausted by the time sixth period came around. Health class wasn’t particularly her most _favorite_ subject, but Chloe was at least grateful it didn’t require much mental effort.

Health was an easy subject to learn. Most of it was common sense. Unless, of course, you were one of the many overly horny teenaged boys who only payed attention when breasts or female genitalia were displayed on the projector.

Oh, boys…

Chloe sighed quietly as she sat down in her seat and dropped her bag to the ground. She almost jumped when a hand suddenly appeared on her left shoulder, but she remembered who sat behind her and turned to greet her best friend.

“Hey, Bree,” Chloe said, smiling. 

“Hey, you okay?” Aubrey said, leaning over her desk. Aubrey may not have known all of Chloe’s truths, but they had known each other since the fifth grade, and Aubrey was always pretty good at reading Chloe’s emotions.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Chloe said. “Just tired.” This was true. Though Chloe wouldn’t go into detail as to why.

“Ugh, same,” Aubrey said, leaning back in her seat. “I can’t wait until this period is over. Stacie and I are thinking about going shopping after school today. Wanna come?”

God. Shopping was the **last** thing Chloe was in the mood for. In fact, Chloe was already planning on staying up all night to study for her Chemistry test the next day. Since the school year was ending soon, all final assignments and tests impacted final grades substantially. It was **very** important for Chloe to maintain her 4.2 grade point average.

After all, Stanford wasn’t easy college to get into.

Chloe pouted, “Aww,” as if not being able to go shopping was really that upsetting. “I can’t. Carrie wanted to have some ‘sisterly-bonding’ time with me today.”

“Oh, boo,” Aubrey said, matching Chloe’s pout. “That sounds so cute though! How is Carrie? I haven’t seen much lately.”

“Oh, you know,” Chloe said. “She’s–” _Bossy, annoying, self-centered, intrusive._ “The same.”

“Aww,” Aubrey said again. “You are so lucky to have her as a sister,” she smiled. “She’s the coolest.”

“Yeah,” Chloe smiled, tightly, nodding. “The coolest.”

If only she knew.

The bell rang and Chloe turned to face the front of the class. Their teacher, Mrs. Harrington, was typing something onto her computer and held up a finger as she continued to type with the other hand.

“Be right with you guys,” she said.

Chloe noticed there were three large cardboard boxes stacked behind Mrs. Harrington’s desk. They hadn’t been there the day before, and Chloe wondered what could possibly be in them.

Some of the other students started to chit-chat quietly as they waited for Mrs. Harrington, but she only took about another minute before she pushed back on her computer chair and stood up.

“Okay!” she smiled, grabbing a stack of papers off of her desk and walking to stand in front of the white board. “Sorry about that. Had to prepare a few things for our lesson today. But before we get to that–” She held up the stack of papers, “Your pop quizzes from Monday are finally graded.”

The class erupted into collective groans and whines and Mrs. Harrington chuckled.

“Oh, relax, you guys. I was actually impressed.” She puckered her lips as she skimmed over the top corners of the tests, “Most of you did pretty well this time.”

She started to stroll through the desk aisles, handing each student their graded quiz, and she winked when she put Chloe’s face down.

Mrs. Harrington wasn’t your average teacher. She was one of the few gems who actually gave a damn about her students and noticed things about them that would fly over most other teacher’s heads. She was observant and her decisions were always calculated.

She knew what kind of reputation Chloe held in the school. But she also knew Chloe’s grades didn’t reflect that reputation and she patted Chloe’s arm before moving on to the next student.

Chloe smiled back at her before lifting the corner of the test. A _‘10/10’_ was written at the top with red marker and Chloe’s smile spread even wider, into a grin. She aced it.

Of course she aced it.

Chloe felt a tap on her shoulder and quickly put the paper back down.

“What’d you get?” Aubrey asked, leaning over her desk again to get a better view of Chloe’s.

Chloe turned her body so she could face Aubrey and blocked the view of her desk.

“Four out of ten,” she lied, looking disappointed. “You?”

“Ooh, rough,” Aubrey said. “I missed two, so, I got eight of ten.”

“Nice!” Chloe smiled, giving her best friend a high five. “Good job.”

“Thanks,” Aubrey smiled. “Sucks you only got a four though.”

Chloe shrugged, “Ah, it’s okay. You know what Carrie always says. Why be smart when you can be pretty?”

Oh, yeah. Carrie was **that** kind of sister.

Aubrey laughed, “She does always say that, doesn’t she?”

Chloe’s lips pressed together as she nodded, “Yes. She does.”

“Ah, Miss Mitchell. So nice of you to join us.”

Mrs. Harrington’s voice immediately ripped Chloe’s attention from Aubrey and she turned back in her chair to see who she knew would be walking into the class with a smug grin on her face.

“Sup, Mrs. H,” Beca said.

Yup. There she was.

“Fashionably late, as usual.” Mrs. Harrington’s voice was laced with disapproval, but she had smile that matched Beca’s.

Beca was the kind of girl who was friends with almost all the teachers. Not in a teacher’s pet sort of way, but more so in a cool– they find her amusing and tolerate her bullshit– sort of way.

Mrs. Harrington shook her head, “Please take your seat.”

Beca saluted her with two fingers, “You got it, teach.”

Chloe watched as Beca walked to her desk. Chloe didn’t realize she had been staring until Beca made eye contact with her for a moment and winked before smirking and taking her seat next to one of the boys she sat with on the bus.

Chloe quickly jerked her head away, casually cupping a hand over the right side of her face in hopes it would hide the heat she could suddenly feel spreading across her cheeks.

Mrs. Harrington finished passing out the quizzes and returned to her previous position in front of the white board.

“Alright, now that that’s finished, I have some exciting news to share with you guys!” She seemed genuinely excited, which could mean a something good, or something terribly, terribly bad was about to be announced. Chloe was eager to find out which. “With only a month and a half left in the school year, I am thrilled to announce your last big project of the year.”

Okay… that could be good _or_ bad. So far, it was still fifty-fifty.

"This project is worth half of your final semester grade.”

“Wait, what?” a student asked, outloud. “So what does that mean?”

“Well,” Mrs. Harrington said, “let’s say you currently have an ‘A’ in this class. If you fail or get a low percentage on this assignment, your final grade will drop to– at the most– a ‘C+.’”

Chloe widened her eyes. Okay. The arrow was definitely starting to lean more towards the bad side.

“What!” the student said, encouraging some of the other students to make other comments aloud and to their neighboring friends. “That sucks!”

Mrs. Harrington brought her hands up, “I know, I know, but hang on. I’m not finished yet.” She waited until the chatter quieted down before she continued. “You don’t have to worry about doing this project all by yourselves, because guess what?” Her grin returned and that’s when it became official.

This was **definitely** something bad!

"You are all going to be partnered up for this assignment,” she said. “Isn’t that great?”

The chatter from before couldn’t amount to the noise that erupted once she made that announcement. Everyone in the class started talking, turning in their seats and pointing across the room towards the people they wanted to be paired with.

Chloe was right along with them and quickly twisted around in her chair.

“Oh my gosh, will you please be my partner?” Chloe wasn’t the biggest fan of partner or group projects. She didn’t like the idea of her grades being in the hands of someone else, but she knew Aubrey was smart, and working with her on something this important would probably work out fine.

“I was just about to ask you!” Aubrey said, reaching forward to grab Chloe’s hands. “Of course I’ll be your partner.”

“Hang on, hang on!” Mrs. Harrington shouted, loud enough to be heard over everyone else. “Settle down.” She waited until her students were quiet again and brought her hands together as she smiled.

Oh, no.

“I didn’t say you get to _pick_ your partners.”

Chloe’s eyes widened and her jaw fell. Was Mrs. Harrington serious? Was she freaking insane?!

The students seemed to blow up at this new information and Mrs. Harrington’s expression fell.

“Guys, seriously!” she shouted. “Enough with the interruptions. I need to finish explaining.” Her firm tone did the trick to silence everyone and this time they remained quiet.

She turned and walked towards her desk, “The reason you guys are going to be paired is because your final assignment in this class is–” She popped one of the boxes open and reached inside.

Chloe could feel her heart pounding harder in her chest and silently prayed it wasn’t what she feared.

_Please don’t let it be–_

“The baby assignment!” Mrs. Harrington held up realistic looking, but definitely totally fake, plastic baby and for once, the class remained silent. It was like everyone was too stunned to talk.

_Fuck._

Chloe started to panic. This was awful! Chloe was going to have to take care of a fake baby for the most important assignment of the year, and she didn’t even know who she was going to be paired with. 

You know what? Scratch that first part. This wasn’t awful.

**This was horrifying!**

“Awh, come on,” Mrs. Harrington said, returning to the front of the class with the baby in her hands. “Aren’t you guys at least a _little_ excited?” 

The class was quiet until an, “I’m not,” came from the back of the room.

Mrs. Harrington looked at the source of the voice, “Beca, you’re never excited for any of my assignments.”

Beca laughed, “True,” she said. “Good one, Mrs. H.”

Mrs. Harrington shook her head and focused her attention back on the whole class.

“Look, I know this sounds like it’s going to be a disaster, but just give it a chance. It could be fun!” She was trying hard to convince her students of something she knew wasn’t true. Mrs. Harrington knew this, but she tried anyway, though the student’s negative expressions still didn’t change.

“Alright.” She seemed to have given up on her efforts and turned back around to go back to her computer. She placed the baby on her desk and looked at the screen as she clicked the mouse a few times. “I’ll start by announcing the pairs. When your names are called, please come up to receive your baby. I’ll explain more of the details to you then to make sure you all know how to take care of it.” She typed something into her computer, “We’ll start with Sarah and Lucas.”

The two students who were called stood up from their chairs and walked over to Mrs. Harrington’s desk. Chloe turned to look at Aubrey with wide eyes.

“This is terrifying,” she said.

“I know right?” Aubrey agreed. “I can’t believe we can’t pick our partners. I really wanted it to be you.” Her brows furrowed and she pursed her bottom lip in the best puppy dog pout she could muster.

It made Chloe chuckle.

“Aww, Bree,” she said, matching her pout. “I wanted it to be you, too.”

They watched as Mrs. Harrington explained how the baby worked to the students she had called up. Everyone else was talking amongst themselves, making it impossible for Chloe to actually hear what Mrs. Harrington was saying, but by the physical gestures and worried expressions on her fellow peer’s faces, Chloe assumed this assignment was not going to be an easy one.

“I wonder who we’re going to get partnered up with,” Aubrey said. “I hope I get someone good.”

Chloe couldn’t have agreed more, “Yeah, me, too.”

They continued to converse and watch as other students were called, but the longer time went on, the more both girls grew impatient. At least until,

“Aubrey and Jesse.”

“What,” Aubrey said, quickly turning around to make eye contact with her partner, Jesse Swanson. He was Beca’s best friend, and by size of the grin on his face, Jesse was excited by Mrs. Harrington’s choice.

“Aye, alright!” Jesse said, looking at Beca, who was sitting next to him, and giving her a high-five. “I got a smart one!”

“Go get’em, Tiger!” Beca grinned, giving Jesse’s bottom a smack as he got up and eagerly walked to Mrs. Harrington.

Aubrey looked back at Chloe, “Oh, God,” she said, worry written all over her face.

Chloe tried to cheer her up, “At least he’s really nice,” she shrugged. It didn’t seem to do the trick, because Aubrey squeezed her eyes shut.

“Why is this happening to me?”

“Aubrey,” Mrs. Harrington said, again. “Come on up here.”

Aubrey reopened her eyes to look at her and her shoulders slumped as she got up from her chair.

“Coming,” she muttered, miserably.

Chloe felt a little bad for her friend, but truthly she also found the ordeal pretty funny. Jesse Swanson wasn’t a bad guy. In fact, he really was one of the nicest guys in their class. But it was also no secret that Jesse was a bit of a theater nerd and not particularly bright. For a control freak like Aubrey, being partnered with someone like that for a project like this was bound to be an interesting experience.

Chloe watched as Mrs. Harrington explained the baby details to them both and glanced around the room when she realized she was probably going to be called up shortly after.

Six pairs had already been called, leaving only eight more students, Chloe included, who still hadn’t been paired up yet. Out of the seven Chloe was left with, there was one student, Aaron Reynolds, who Chloe thought would be the best choice.

Aaron was a leader in the scholastic team and competed in the school’s Academic Decathlons. Sure, being partnered with him wouldn’t really go well with her “image,” but at least Chloe would be comfortable knowing her partner was smart and would put his best effort into the project.

Then there was one student left who Chloe immediately knew would be the **worst** option.

That student, was of course, the infamous Beca Mitchell.

There was no way Chloe could work with Beca on a project like this. They would probably drive each other insane! Not to mention Chloe wouldn’t be able to trust Beca with her part of the baby care. Beca was the Queen of procrastination and lack of motivation.

No. No way. There was no way Mrs. Harrington would do that to her. Chloe was sure Mr. Harrington was smart enough to know that pairing her with Beca would be a match made in Hell.

When Aubrey returned to her desk, she was holding her fake baby and looking like her favorite tv show had just got canceled.

Chloe tried her best not to laugh, “You okay?” she asked.

Aubrey continued to stare at the baby in silence for a moment, before looking up at Chloe with sad eyes.

“This is the worse day of my life.”

Damn. Aubrey was _really_ not helping Chloe with the whole “don’t laugh” situation.

But Chloe managed.

"Come on, you don’t mean that,” she tried, rubbing her friend’s arm. “I’m sure everything will turn out fine. I mean, who knows–” She glanced over to where Jesse was excitedly telling Beca about his knew partnership with Aubrey and shrugged. “Maybe you’ll like working with him.”

Aubrey’s head was still down, but her eyes looked up to glare at Chloe.

“Yeah, right.” She sighed, “Well I guess your partnership couldn’t be worse than mine and Jesse’s.”

“Beca and Chloe.”

Or… maybe it could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Awh, shit! This is gonna be fun. ;)
> 
> Let me know what you guys think of the story so far!
> 
> Follow me on Tumblr for sneak peeks and other works: not-so-average-fangirl


	2. B.M-B

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! Thank you all so much for your positive feedback on this story. So glad to see so many of you enjoying it! :D
> 
> Hope you enjoy this next chapter as well.
> 
> Let the partnership begin! xD

Beca immediately stopped talking to Jesse when she heard her name.

Did Mrs. Harrington say that correctly? Did that woman really just pair her up with Chloe freaking Beale?!

Beca turned in her chair and looked over at Chloe to find her already staring back at her in shock. Beca’s gaze then shifted towards the front desk, where Mrs. Harrington was smiling impishly at them both.

“Come on up, girls.” 

Beca looked to Jesse in panic.

“Aye! Alright,” he said putting his fist out for Beca to pound it.

“What! No, dude. It’s not alright.” She looked over and watched Chloe slowly walk up to the desk. “This is gonna suck.”

Jesse furrowed his brow, “Wait, why? I thought you liked her?”

 _“Dude!”_ Beca said, her eyes wide as she slapped his arm. “Shut up!”

“Beca,” Mrs. Harrington called again, smiling as she curled a finger. “Come on.”

Beca’s forehead curved as she sighed in defeat and languidly made her way over to Mrs. Harrington’s desk. She stood next to Chloe and shared a quick, awkward glance with her, before they both snapped their attention back to their teacher.

“Alright, now that I have you both up here–“

“I’m sorry,” Chloe suddenly said, cutting Mrs. Harrington off. “But before we continue, can I formally request a different partner?” Her eyes looked desperate as she asked, “Please?”

“Yeah, I’m with Chloe on that one,” Beca added. “We would make _horrible_ partners.”

“Horrible,” Chloe repeated, nodding.

But despite their efforts, Mrs. Harrington’s sly smile never faltered.

"Girls…” she said. “Even if I wanted to pair you with other students, I simply cannot.”

“Why not?” Beca asked.

“What do you mean?” Chloe added.

Mrs. Harrington picked up the fake baby that was lying next to her, “The recording device that calculates the points lost in this particular baby– which is _your_ baby–” she pointed out, “is already programmed with your names and grades.”

Beca and Chloe stood in stunned silence as their teacher explained.

“So,” Mrs. Harrington continued, putting the baby back down on her desk, “whether you like it or not,” she grinned. “You two are the new parents of this little bundle of joy.”

Beca and Chloe slowly turned their heads to stare at each other.

This was **_so_** going to suck.

“Now,” Mrs. Harrington started, “I’ll explain how the docking of points works in detail once everyone gets their babies, but for now, let me give you girls the accessories you’ll need to get your baby to stop crying.”

Beca and Chloe continued to watch in silence as Mrs. Harington placed a plastic bottle, two purple bracelets, and a small, fake diaper on the desk.

She held up the two bracelets, “First thing you always want to keep with you are these bracelets.” She handed them to the girls, who both hesitated before reaching out to take them. “If the baby starts crying, place the bracelet up to it’s chest. Once it recognizes you as one of it’s parents, you will hear it chime.”

Beca shifted her gaze back and forth between the bracelet in her hand and the fake baby that was still lying on the desk. Mrs. Harrington had only just started to explain the assignment and it already sounded like it was going to be a nightmare.

 _Especially_ because of the girl who was her partner. Beca found Chloe annoyingly full of herself, but she also had been secretly crushing on her for the last four years.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t a _complete_ secret. Afterall, Beca did enjoy teasing and flirting with Chloe on occasion, but that was only for fun. Beca was sure Chloe was as straight as they come, and Beca refused to break the ‘Golden Rule’ of Lesbianism:

**Never fall for a straight girl!**

“Now,” Mrs. Harrington said, bring Beca’s attention back to her. “Using the bracelet won’t always stop the baby from crying. Sometimes you’ll have to feed it–” She lifted up the plastic bottle, “which you simulate by putting this bottle against it’s mouth. If that doesn’t work, you can also change it’s diaper, rock it or even burp it.”

Beca furrowed her brow. This sounded really complicated. She had to do all of these different things just for some dumb plastic baby doll to stop fake crying?

Fuck. This was _really_ going to suck.

“Once everyone has their babies, I will explain how the point system works and show you how to turn your babies on.”

Beca and Chloe looked at each other in an awkward silence before looking down at their “baby.”

“But, for now,” Mrs. Harrington said, grinning. “Who wants to take this little cutie to their desk, first?”

Beca made an uncomfortable expression as she looked at the doll, “Uhh…”

“I’ll take it,” Chloe said, quickly picking up the baby doll, along with it’s accessories, and startling Beca with her swiftness.

“Okay…” Beca muttered, confused as she watched Chloe spin around and walk back to her desk. Beca then looked to Mrs. Harrington. “Alright, seriously, Mrs. H,” she said. “Why on Earth did you pair us together? We can’t stand each other.”

But just like earlier, Mrs. Harrington’s smile never faltered, and in fact, this time it actually spread wider.

“You’ll thank me one day.”

Beca’s brow furrowed. Okay… What the hell was that supposed to mean?

With her eyes squinted in confusion, Beca opened her mouth to question her teacher, but the older woman beat her to it and called out the next pair of students.

“Aaron and Rachel.”

It was obvious Beca wasn’t going to get any answers to the handful of questions she had running through her brain, so she remained quiet instead, and gradually walked back to her seat.

* * *

Once Mrs. Harrington finished calling out the pairs, she hushed her noisy students and stood at the front of the classroom. 

“Okay,” she grinned. “Now that I’ve got you all paired up, I want to explain how the point system will work in this assignment.”

Beca glanced across the room to where Chloe was sitting with their baby, and noticed the way she was biting her bottom lip, nervously.

“This assignment is worth one thousand points.”

Beca’s eyes instantly went wide at the **very** large number.

“What!” she said, along with other similar comments from her fellow peers.

“I know, I know,” Mrs. Harrington said, using her hands to calm everyone back down. “Look, I know it’s sounds scary, but let me explain it further.”

She waited until the class settled down before continuing.

“It’s not going to be as hard as it sounds. You will all start with one thousand points and your scores will decrease depending on how often your baby cries.” She picked up a doll that was lying on her desk chair, “For every two and a half minutes your baby consistently cries, you will be docked one point. So, on a bigger scale, if you leave your baby crying for an hour straight, you will lose 24 points.”

Beca released a breath. Okay. That didn’t sound so bad. Maybe this assignment wasn’t going to be as hard as Beca thought.

Then again, Chloe was still her partner, and God only knew what kind of events that was going to lead to.

"So, you see?” Mrs. Harrington smiled. “It’s going to be easy.”

Sure. _Easy._

“Now,” Mrs. Harrington said, lifting the baby doll. “Let me show you how to turn it on.”

* * *

 

After the class ended, each baby was turned on and ready to begin it’s “new life.” 

Chloe was talking with Aubrey as she exited the class until both Beca and Jesse quickly caught up with them and interrupted their conversation.

“Hey, wait up,” Beca said, walking next to Chloe as Jesse moved to walk next to Aubrey. “Shouldn’t we like, talk about what we’re gonna do with this thing before we take it home?” Beca asked.

Jesse grinned, “Yeah, can we talk about our baby, too, Aubrey?”

Chloe stopped walking and she and Aubrey shared a glance.

“Uh…” Aubrey muttered.

“I mean…” Chloe said, still looking at Aubrey before turning her head to look at Beca. “We all ride the same bus. I guess we could–” She hesitated, and Beca could tell it was because Chloe was about to suggest something she knew Aubrey wasn’t going to like. “Sit with each other… this time?”

It was like Chloe wasn’t even sure of her suggestion, and when Beca looked at Aubrey, that poor priss of a girl looked downright mortified by the idea.

“Yeah! That sounds like a great idea,” Jesse said, his grin was wider than it had been before. “What do you think, Beca? Wanna sit with Chloe and I’ll sit with Aubrey today?”

Beca chewed on the inside of her cheek. She knew being partnered with Chloe meant she was going to have to spend a lot more time with her for the next five days, but damn. She didn’t think she would have to sacrifice the bus ride home, too.

After thinking about it for a moment, Beca released a breath through her nose.

“I… guess.”

“Yay!” Jesse cheered, making Aubrey freeze uncomfortably when he suddenly wrapped his arms around her in a tight side hug.

“Get off me!” Aubrey snapped, pushing him off of her. “We might be partners, but that does **_not_ **mean you get to touch me whenever you feel like it.”

Jesse quickly backed off, his hands up in surrender, and smiled.

“Playing hard to get I see,” he said, winking. “I like that in a woman.”

Aubrey and Chloe looked at him in disgust while Beca shook her head in disappointment.

“Ugh,” Aubrey groaned, rolling her eyes. “I’ll see you on the bus, Chlo,” she said, walking away while holding her fake baby close to her.

“Hey, wait up!” Jesse called, quickly following after her.

After Jesse ran off, Beca and Chloe were left alone, standing in an awkward silence as they side glanced each other.

When their eyes met, both girls shared a short, nervous huff of a laugh and Beca stuck her hands in her jean pockets as she cleared her throat.

“So, uh…” she muttered. “I guess, we should… get to the bus?”

Chloe nodded, “Yeah,” she said, pressing the baby in her hands closer to her. “Sounds good."

* * *

Beca boarded the bus first, trying her best not to make eye contact with anyone as she walked through the aisle and sat in Chloe’s usually seat. 

Beca pulled her backpack closer to her as she slid towards the window, turning her head back towards the aisle when Chloe didn’t sit down.

“What?” Beca asked.

“You,” Chloe said, eyeing her, “memorized where I sit?”

A stunned expression flashed in Beca’s eyes, but the moment was gone as quickly as it came and she furrowed her brow.

“You’ve been sitting in the same seat for years, Chloe,” she said. “It’s not _that_ hard to remember.”

Chloe’s lips curved into a slight frown, “Oh… right.” She sat down next to Beca and placed her bag on the floor between her legs.

Beca watched as Chloe gently placed their baby on her lap, finding it amusing at how careful she was with it.

“So,” Beca said. “What’s the plan with this…” Beca lifted one of the baby’s hands and dropped it. “Thing.”

Chloe gasped, “It’s not a _thing,_ Beca,” she said, cradling the doll. “It’s our baby.”

Beca snickered, “Are you serious?”

“Yes, I’m serious,” Chloe said. “If we want to get a good grade on this project, we have to take it seriously.”

“Well who says I want to get a good grade?”

Whoops. That was the wrong thing for Beca to say.

A serious expression suddenly fell over Chloe’s face and Beca gulped when Chloe started to lean in closer to her.

“Let me tell you something, Beca,” Chloe said, firmly, poking Beca’s chest. “Whether you believe it or not, I actually give a shit about my grades, and I have worked too hard for too long to watch it all go to waste because of some incompetent, lazy–” She hesitated for a moment as she struggled to find the right insult. _“Stubborn_ partner of mine.” She stared hard into Beca’s eyes before grunting and shaking her head as she sat back on her side of the seat. “Just don’t fuck this up for me.”

Beca’s jaw slacked in silence as she processed everything Chloe had just said to her. Like, **woah.** Where the _fuck_ did **that** come from? Beca had never seen Chloe so assertive, or angry, or aggressive. Hell, she had never even heard her say the word fuck!

It was actually pretty hot.

“Damn, Beale…” Beca said, smirking. “Didn’t take you as the threatening type.”

Chloe huffed and swatted some of her red hair out of her face, “Whatever.” She started to rock the baby in her arms, “So what are we naming her?”

Beca quirked a brow, “What are we naming her?” she repeated.

“Yes,” Chloe said, reaching an arm down to pull a piece of paper out of her bag. “Mrs. Harrington gave us these Birth Certificates to fill out the names of our babies and we have to bring it back tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Beca said. “But what I meant was, how do you know it’s a girl?”

Chloe furrowed her brow and looked down at the baby in her arms, “What do you mean? She’s wearing a pink hat and a pink onesie.”

“Wow,” Beca said, her brows raised. “Way to follow the stereotypes of our sexist society.”

Chloe slowly turned her head to glare at Beca, but the smirk on Beca’s lips indicated her teasing intentions and Chloe couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Shut up,” she said, trying not to smile. “But seriously, what are we naming her?” Chloe held the baby up so it could face them both and tilted her head to the side as she studied it’s face.

“I think she looks like a Beca Jr.”

Chloe looked at Beca, “We are _not_ naming her Beca Jr.”

“Oh, come on. Why not?” Beca asked, smiling. “I think it’s got a nice ring to it.”

“No,” Chloe said. “No it doesn’t.”

Beca laughed, “Well what do you want to name her then?”

Chloe looked back at the baby as she thought about it before a smile suddenly spread across her face.

“I know,” she said, turning the baby to face Beca. “Let’s name her Bella!”

Beca’s nose scrunched, “Gross,” she said. “No. We’re not naming her Bella.”

“What?” Chloe said. “Why not? It’s such a cute name.”

“No it’s not,” Beca said, folding her arms. “It’s an ugly name.”

“What!” Chloe gasped. “How is it an ugly name? Bella _literally_ means beautiful.”

“I don’t know,” Beca shrugged. “I just think it sounds–” Her shoulders lifted as her fingers wiggled in a creepy-crawly fashion. “Prissy.”

“Prissy?” Chloe deadpanned.

“Yeah,” Beca said. “Prissy.”

Chloe looked at her before rolling her eyes and focusing on the baby doll again.

“Well I want to name her Bella.”

Beca blinked, “Well I want to name her Beca Jr.”

Chloe huffed, “Okay…” She placed the baby in the empty space between them and turned in her seat to face Beca. “So how do we come to an agreement?”

Beca tilted her head as she smirked, “Hmm…” Her eyes narrowed as she focused on Chloe. “I’ve got an idea.” Beca used her back to push off of the bus window behind her and leaned forward. “A very serious and _totally_ mature idea.”

Chloe made a face, “I seriously doubt that.”

Beca held up a fist and smiled, “You know how rock-paper-scissors works, right?”

Chloe quirked a brow, “You cannot be serious.”

“Oh, I’m very serious,” Beca said. She kept her fist held out for a few seconds, waiting for Chloe to join in, but when Chloe continued to just stare at her like she was crazy, Beca nudged her arm. “Come on.”

Chloe glanced at her fist skeptically before giving in with a shake of her head.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this.”

Beca grinned, “That a girl.”

Chloe held up her fist, “Are we doing just one round, or–?”

“I’ll be honest, I’m pretty good at this game,” Beca said, cockily. “So to make it more fair for you, let’s do best two out of three.”

Chloe smirked, and Beca tried to ignore the way it made her stomach flutter.

“You’re on.”

Beca smirked back and started the game.

“Okay. Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!”

They both chose the scissor option and Beca couldn’t help but laugh.

“What?” Chloe asked. “What’s so funny?”

“Oh, nothing,” Beca said. “I just find it interesting that we both chose scissors.”

Chloe clearly wasn’t catching the innuendo.

“Why would that be interesting?”

“Because look,” Beca said, ensnaring her bottom lip with her teeth in amusement as she pressed her two opened fingers between Chloe’s. “Now we’re scissoring.”

Chloe gawked at Beca’s action and quickly pulled her hand away.

“Beca!” she cried, groaning at the way Beca just laughed at her. “Can you not be gay, for like, five seconds?”

“Awh, what’s wrong, Princess?” Beca teased. “Am I making you uncomfortable?” She punctuated her question by bringing her parted fingers up to her mouth and swiped her tongue over the opened space between them.

Chloe glared at her, “You’re so gross.” Her lips spoke an insult, but was that a blush on her cheeks?

Beca’s laughter settled, “Alright, alright,” she said. “I’m done messing with you. Come on.” She held a fist up again, “Let’s play for real.”

Chloe huffed a frustrated sigh and reluctantly rejoined the game.

“Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!”

Beca’s jaw slacked in surprise when Chloe’s opened palm wrapped around her fist.

“Paper beats rock, Beca,” Chloe smirked.

Beca narrowed her eyes at her, “Beginner’s luck,” she said. “Let’s go again.”

“Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!”

“Ha!” Chloe cheered, bumping the top of Beca’s parted fingers with her fist. “Rock beats scissors! I win!”

“What!” Beca couldn’t believe it. She didn’t even win once! “That’s bullshit.”

“Don’t be a sore loser, Beca,” Chloe said, picking up their baby and putting it back on her lap. “It’s not attractive.”

Beca’s lips pouted in defeat, but her mind couldn’t resist pondering Chloe’s last choice of words. What would it matter to her if the way Beca acted was attractive or not?

Whatever. This was no time for overthinking.

Beca groaned and crossed her arms. “Fine,” she said, her body turning slightly to look out the window. “Her name is Bella.”

Beca couldn’t see it, but Chloe was already filling out Bella’s first name on the Birth Certificate.

“Beautiful,” she smiled. “Oh, wait. There’s a space for her last name, too.”

This intrigued Beca enough to turn back around in her seat and rejoin the conversation.

“So they want to know who’s the _man_ in this relationship?” Beca chuckled, leaning over to look at the certificate.

Chloe looked at her, “Way to follow the stereotypes of our sexist society, _Beca,”_ she mocked, making Beca narrow her eyes at her. “Neither of us is the “man,”” Chloe said. “We’re both women. She should have both of our last names.”

Beca snorted, “What, like, Mitchell-Beale?”

“Or Beale-Mitchell,” Chloe corrected.

“Hm,” Beca hummed. “Well since you got to pick her first name, I think it’s only fair that my last name is first.”

“Hey,” Chloe said. “I won that perk fair and square, and you know it.”

Beca rolled her eyes, “Yeah, whatever.”

“But it’s fine,” Chloe suddenly said, surprising Beca. “I don’t mind if she has your last name first.” She wrote their last names out on the paper and stared at it as she read the full name aloud. “Bella Mitchell-Beale…”

“Huh,” Beca said, reading over Chloe’s handwriting. “Now _that_ actually does have a nice ring to it.”

“Yeah it–” Chloe said, quietly, turning her head to look at Beca with a gentle expression that made Beca’s heart race. “It really does.”

There was something in that moment of silence they shared that Beca had never felt with Chloe before. It was thick and tingly. It felt good, which was also alarming. Beca had already learned her lesson when it came to a straight girl’s charm.

She couldn’t let herself fall for it again. So she brushed the moment off.

Beca chuckled nervously and leaned back to sit regularly in her seat.

“Alright,” she said. “Bella Mitchell-Beale it is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That actually would be a pretty cool name, in my opinion. What do you guys think? xD
> 
> Follow me on Tumblr for sneak peeks and other work: not-so-average-fangirl
> 
> Follow my Instagram for Bechloe video edits and live video sessions: notsoaveragefangirl
> 
> Stay tuned for more!


	3. The First Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew! That took a while to update. Sorry, guys.
> 
> But here it is! Hope you guys enjoy the new chapter. :D

The bus pulled up to their stop and the driver cranked open the door. Chloe stepped out first, cradling Bella in her arms as Beca followed behind her.

“Hey, Princess,” Beca said, gaining Chloe’s attention. “You forgot your bag on the floor.” 

Chloe’s eyes narrowed as she took the bag Beca was holding out to her. 

“Why do you insist on calling me that?” 

Beca snickered. “Because you insist on acting like one.” 

Chloe gasped in offense. “I don’t act like a Princess!”

Beca laughed, “She says defensively,” and walked passed a still gaping Chloe as she headed in the direction of their houses.

With a frustrated grunt, Chloe hitched her bag over her shoulder and carried Bella with her as she, too, made her way down to their neighboring homes.

Beca stopped when she reached her front door and if Chloe hadn’t been paying attention, she would have run right into her.

“Uh, ‘scuse me,” Chloe said, nudging Beca’s back with her elbow. “What are you doing?”

“Well, I’m just wondering…” Beca said, turning around. “What we’re going to do now?”

Chloe’s brow arched, “What do you mean?”

“I mean, are we going to hangout and take care of this thing together or–?” Beca lifted Bella’s arm and dropped it.

Chloe could tell Beca wasn’t really interested in taking care of Bella, which in all honesty, she was actually fine with. If Beca willingly didn’t want to participate in the care of Bella, then that was less of a struggle for Chloe to have complete control over the project.

This could actually work in her favor.

“I’ll take her tonight,” Chloe quickly said, holding Bella closer to her. It was a little possessive, but she couldn’t help it. There was a lot riding on this baby doll.

Beca quirked a brow, “You sure?”

Chloe nodded. “Yeah, totes. If, uh–” She started to walk backwards. “If I need your help with anything, I’ll give you a call.” She was about to turn to face her house, but stopped when a curious expression curved on Beca’s face. “What?”

“You have my number?”

Whoops. 

“U-Uh…” There was no way Chloe could ever admit that she had secretly found out Beca’s phone number two years back. It was in ninth grade when they shared a history class together. The class had been split into five groups of four for a project, and a master sheet of everyone’s contact info was made to help with communication amongst the students.

Chloe and Beca weren’t in the same group, but when Chloe had her chance to write down her other partner’s information, her eyes just _happened_ to fall over Beca’s name and her pencil _somehow_ jotted down her cell phone number on a separate piece of paper.

It was a crazy coincidence actually. Chloe still doesn’t know how it happened…

“My mom has your house number,” Chloe said, quickly. Which was true. “My mom likes to have our neighbor’s numbers in case of any emergencies.” 

Beca’s face scrunched as she thought about it. “Huh…” she said. “That’s… weird. But okay. I get it.”

Chloe smiled nervously. “Uh-huh,” she nodded. “So, anyway, yeah. If I need your help I’ll call you.” Chloe quickly spun around and couldn’t get her key out of her bag fast enough. She could feel Beca’s eyes still on her, watching her struggle to get the key in the lock and wondering why she was acting like a nervous spaz. Chloe almost dropped the damn thing as she thought about it. “See ya tomorrow!” she said, finally, before stepping into her house and shutting the door.

Chloe wasn’t there to see it, but Beca furrowed her brow when Chloe went inside and she shook her head.

“Weirdo.”

* * *

 

Chloe plopped down onto her bed, face up, and sighed as she stared at the ceiling.

This was going to be a **very** long weekend. The project had only just begun, and already Chloe was letting Beca get under her skin. There was no telling what else could possibly go wrong over the next few days, but hopefully if Chloe could manage to keep Bella all to herself, then maybe she could survive this whole ordeal after all.

Chloe laid her head to the side to look at Bella, whom she had carefully placed on the bed before she fell on top of the mattress. Who would have thought something so small and inanimate would cause such stress?

“So here’s the deal,” Chloe said, rolling over to lay on her stomach as she spoke to Bella. “Mommy has _a lot_ of studying to do tonight, so if you could just stay quiet and be a good girl–“ Chloe patted the top of Bella’s synthetic, brown hair. “That would be great.”

She smiled at Bella’s stilled face, her shiny, piercing blue eyes staring back at Chloe. It was a cute moment, for the first few seconds, but then Chloe thought about the fact that she was talking to a doll.

“Okay.” Chloe sat up from her bed and grabbed her bag as she walked over to her desk and sat on her teal, spinning chair. There was a Pre-Calculus, Chemistry, **and** English test she had to study for, and she didn’t want to waste any time.

Chloe was about half an hour into studying for Chemistry when Bella startled her as she suddenly started to cry.

“Shit,” Chloe muttered, dropping her book on the desk and standing to walk over to the bed. “Shh, it’s okay. It’s okay.”

Chloe picked Bella up and started to rock with her. “Shh, shh, shh, it’s okay.” She nibbled on her lower lip nervously as she tried to remember all the ways she could get Bella to stop crying.

What was that first option, again?

Chloe looked down at her wrist.

Oh, right! The bracelet. 

Chloe took the purple band she still had around her wrist and pressed it to Bella’s chest. Sure enough, a melodic ‘ding’ chimed from a speaker within her, but to Chloe’s dismay, Bella didn’t stop crying. 

“Oh, come on,” Chloe pouted. “Ugh, what else did Mrs. Harrington say...” She rocked Bella backforth as she thought back to the list of ways Mrs. Harrington explained would get the baby to stop crying, and one by one, she tried them all. “Are you hungry?”

Chloe held Bella on her hip as she reached into her bag and blindly searched for the small, plastic bottle they were given earlier in class.

“Got it!” Chloe placed the tip of the bottle against Bella’s slightly parted lips and waited. There was another chime and she gasped a smile that didn’t last.

Bella still kept crying.

“Come on, Bella,” Chloe whined, rocking her faster. “I really need to study. Will you please stop crying?” Chloe knew she wasn’t talking to an _actual_ baby, but if she were being honest, it actually kind of helped. 

When Bella’s high pitched crying continued, Chloe groaned.

“Ugh! Why can’t you just **say** what you want?”

That would be _so_ much easier.

Chloe searched her bag again for anything else that could get Bella to stop and gasped another smile when her fingers ran over a soft material.

“Ooh…” She pulled out the small diaper Mrs. Harrington had given them and held it up. “Does someone need their diaper changed?”

She gently placed Bella on her bed again and undid her pink onesie. The diaper she was already wearing was held together by two small velcro strips and just as Chloe ripped them apart, she was startled by her door suddenly bursting open.

“Oh my God, what is that noise?!” Claire said, barging into Chloe’s room like she owned the place. Her eyes fell to Chloe’s hands and her brow arched, curiously. “What the fuck are you doing?”

Chloe blinked. “I’m… changing my baby’s diaper.” Was there really any other way of explaining it?

Claire’s expression didn’t change, but her eyes suddenly widened.

“Oh!” she gasped. “That’s right. I remember that assignment. Ugh, I hated it,” she said, flipping her strawberry blonde hair and leaning against Chloe’s door frame. “Did you at least get a good partner?”

“Um–“ Depends in which context. “I got partnered with Beca Mitchell.”

“Ew,” Claire said, her face cringing. “The lesbian dyke who lives next door?”

Defensive anger suddenly flashed in Chloe’s eyes, and she couldn’t resist her natural reaction to the comment.

“Hey,” she said, standing up straight. “Don’t call her that.”

“Why not?” Claire said. “It’s what she is.”

“You don’t even know her.”

Ooh… Maybe that wasn’t the _best_ thing Chloe could have retorted with.

Claire snorted, “And **you** do?” Chloe’s expression fell. “You’re not even friends with that weirdo.”

Chloe’s eyes shifted back and forth nervously as she stared at Claire.

“S-So?”

“So why are you defending her?” Her brow was arched as she eyed Chloe suspiciously and Chloe swallowed.

That was a great question. Why _was_ Chloe defending Beca?

“I’m– I’m not.”

“No?” Claire asked, her arms crossed. “Cause it sure sounds like it.”

Shit. Way to go Chloe.

Chloe controlled her breathing and contained her nerves.

“Well I’m not, alright?” she said, firmly, regaining confidence. “I just didn’t think it was a nice thing to say. She’s my partner for this project and I don’t want any problems. So, if she ever comes over, can you at least be cordial with her?”

Claire’s arms were still crossed as she pondered the idea.

“No promises,” she said, lowering her arms and turning her body as she prepared to leave. “And if I were you, I’d be a little careful hanging around someone like her in public.”

Chloe furrowed her brow. “Why? What do you–“

“We wouldn’t want people getting the wrong idea about you.”

Her words were heavy as they weighed in Chloe’s chest. Chloe knew _exactly_ what she meant and it made her stomach churn. There was no way Claire could ever find out the truth about her.

Atleast, not anytime soon.

With her final comment, Claire turned and left Chloe with a still crying Bella. It took the high pitched screaming to elevate in volume for Chloe to finally snap out of her panicked daze, and she quickly turned her attention back to the doll.

“Shit,” Chloe muttered. How long had Bella been crying now? She was sure a point or two had definitely been docked.

She quickly replaced one diaper for the other, and when she picked Bella up, Chloe was relieved to hear that the crying finally stopped.

“There you go,” Chloe smiled, bouncing Bella back and forth. “That’s a good girl.” She carefully placed Bella back on the bed, “Okay. I hope that’s all you’re going to need for a while.” Chloe walked back to her desk, but before she sat down, Chloe turned to point at Bella. “Be good.”

To help her focus, Chloe connected her phone to her bluetooth speaker and played some of her favorite music as her brain went back to study mode.

* * *

 

After an hour of silence, Chloe had almost forgotten about Bella.

That is, until her crying started back up again.

“Oh, no, no, no,” Chloe said, spinning in her chair to look at Bella. “Not again!”

She picked the baby up and placed her bracelet against her chest. “It’s okay, it’s okay. Momma’s here.” The chime hidden within Bella went off, but her crying didn’t stop. 

“Ugh, okay,” Chloe said. “Are you hungry?” She placed the fake bottle against her small plastic lips. Another chime, but the crying continued. “I just changed your diaper,” Chloe said, rocking her. “It can’t be that.”

This was not good. Not only could Chloe not focus with Bella constantly crying, but the longer she couldn’t get her to stop, the more points were docked from the overall grade of the assignment.

She needed to think of something, and she needed to think of it fast.

Once Chloe went through her mental list of things again, there was one option left that she hadn’t tried before. In fact, she had actually been trying to avoid.

“Dammit,” Chloe muttered to herself. Her grade was on the line, so whether she liked it or not, she had to do what she had to do.

* * *

 

Beca had a pair of large, colorful headphones on her ears and her tongue was sticking out from her lips as she virtually murdered a shit ton of zombies. She was on a roll, too, until she heard the doorbell ring.

**_*ding-dong*_ **

Her father had just stepped out to visit the grocery store, so there was no one else who could answer the door. 

But that was fine. Beca’s game was more important at the moment. Whoever was at the door could come back another time. 

**_*ding-dong*_ **

If it was a package, they could just leave it on the porch. 

**_*ding-dong, ding-dong*_ **

Beca wasn’t interested in being a Jehovah witness, anyway.

**_*ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong*_ **

Wow, these kids are really determined when it comes to ding-dong ditching.

**_*ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong*_ **

“Fuck!” Beca cried, her focus lost as her character got stuck and devoured by a swarm of zombies. “Alright, alright!” She groaned as she tossed her headphones and controller onto the couch and stomped her way over to the front door. “I swear this better be an emergen– Oh...” She blinked when she opened the door and found a brow furrowed Chloe swaying a screaming Bella back and forth.

“What are you doing here?” Beca asked. “And damn–” She took a step out and turned to examine her doorbell. “Did you break my doorbell?”

“You weren’t answering the door,” was Chloe’s response and walked into Beca’s house without hesitation.

Beca’s brows rose in surprise. “Sure, come on in.” 

Once she was in the living room, Chloe spun around to face Beca.

“I need your help,” she said.

Beca walked in with fingers in her ears and a pinched expression on her face. “I can’t imagine with what.”

Chloe ignored Beca’s discomfort and sarcasm and continued. “I can’t get Bella to stop crying,” she said, stepping closer. “I’ve tried everything, but I think she needs to interact with you.”

“What?” Beca said. “How is she–” Beca corrected herself. “I mean, how is this _thing_ going to know the difference between you and me?”

“Stop calling her a ‘thing,’” Chloe said. “And I think you need to press your bracelet against her chest so she knows the other parent is spending time with her, too.” Chloe looked at Beca’s empty wrists and scoffed. “You’re not even wearing it!?”

“Hey,” Beca snapped. She hated being scolded. _Especially_ if she was being scolding by Chloe freakin’ Beale. “You were the one who wanted to take care of it tonight.” She walked over to the end of the couch where she had tossed her backpack and reached inside to fish out the purple band. “I wasn’t planning on wearing this thing if I wasn’t going to need it.”

Chloe’s eyes narrowed in annoyance as Beca approached her.

“Alright, come on,” Beca said, her arms extended. “Hand it over.”

Chloe frowned. “Her name is Bella.”

Beca rolled her eyes. “Oh my God, okay! Bella,” she said. “Can you _please_ hand over Bella?” 

Chloe hesitated for a moment, but ultimately gave in and passed the crying doll over to Beca.

Beca pressed her wrist to Bella’s chest and sure enough, her crying stopped.

“There. The beast has been silenced,” Beca said, holding Bella out towards Chloe, her brow curving when Chloe didn’t take her. “What?” Beca asked. “Oh, come on, I was just kidding,” she explained. “I don’t _actually_ think it’s a beast.”

Chloe snickered and shook her head. “No, it’s not that.” She stared at her, hesitating on what she was going to ask next. “Look,” Chloe said. “I don’t like asking for favors and I know I said I would take care of Bella tonight, but–” She chewed on her bottom lip and Beca ignored the way it made her body tingle. “Could you just keep her for the rest of the night? There’s a few things I have to take care of at home, and if she keeps crying, I don’t think I’ll be able to get it all done.”

Beca looked at her skeptically. She wasn’t fond of the idea of having to take care of the doll, considering she had made herself very comfortable on the couch and was looking forward to not having any homework to do. But Chloe was staring at her with those bright, pleading blue eyes. It sounded like she really needed this favor, and Beca wasn’t a monster.

So how could she say no?

After a silent beat, Beca sighed. “Yeah, I guess.” Damn those blue eyes. “That’s fine.”

“Oh my gosh, thank you!” Without warning, Chloe wrapped her arms around Beca in a firm hug. 

Beca could feel heat spread across her cheeks as well as down between her legs as their bodies pressed up against one another. It was a new and unexpected sensation, but **damn** did it feel good.

Chloe let go and separated from her sooner than Beca would have preferred, and she chuckled nervously.

“Sorry,” Chloe said. Was that a blush on her cheeks? “I just… really appreciate it.”

“Y-Yeah,” Beca stuttered, clearing her throat. “No problem. I was planning on staying in anyway,” she said, nodding towards her X-Box console and flat screen tv. 

“Zombies,” Chloe said, nodding. “Nice.”

They shared a laugh and before the after silence could get too awkward, Chloe broke it with a chirpy farewell.

“Okay! So…” She fiddled with her fingers for a moment before separating her hands and placing them at her sides. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow morning,” she smiled.

Beca smiled back. “Yeah, uh… here–” She placed Bella down on the couch and extended a hand. “Let me walk you out.” Beca led Chloe back to the front door and opened it. “See ya tomorrow.”

Chloe stepped out but turned back around. “Please take good care of her.”

Wow. Chloe really took this project seriously. It made Beca chuckle.

“I will.”

“You promise?” Her tone was suddenly very serious. It was almost intimidating.

Almost.

“God, will you stop worrying!” Beca laughed. “I promise, okay? Everything will be fine.”

Chloe looked at her doubtfully for a moment, but then her expression softened.

“Okay,” Chloe said. “Thank you, again.”

Beca nodded. “No problem.” Chloe smiled at her one last time and Beca watched silently as her ridiculously attractive neighbor made her way back to her house.

Once Chloe was inside, Beca sighed and walked back to the living room. She stopped when she reached the couch and stared at the fake baby doll that was staring right back at her.

“Well this is awkward,” Beca said, her fingers twitching against her legs. She wasn’t sure what she should do next. The doll wasn’t crying, so that _technically_ meant it didn’t need attention, right?

It didn’t take long for Beca to decide that that was the case, and she shrugged her shoulders before plopping back down onto the couch and re-immersing herself in the virtual, post-apocalyptic world of zombies.

She was about twenty minutes into a new game when her cell phone started to ring.

“Damnit!” Beca cried, trying her best to stay focused on the game. “Can’t a girl get some peace in her own home?!” The phone kept ringing and she sighed in defeat when she realized who’s ringtone it was. She paused the game and reached for her phone. “What do you want, Jesse?” she said, perhaps a little sassier than was necessary. 

_“Damn, Bec,”_ Jesse said, through the speaker. _“What’s with the hostility?”_

Beca sighed and rubbed her forehead. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap at you. I was just in the middle of a good zombie game and you know how I hate getting interrupted.”

_“Wait, so you’re not even ready?”_ Jesse asked, causing Beca to furrow her brow.

“Ready for what?”

_“Are you serious?”_ Jesse said. _“Our game starts in twenty minutes. Bumper’s already at the park!”_

Beca’s eyes went wide. “Shit!” She had completely forgotten about the basketball game she, Jesse, and their friend Benji were going to play against their fellow peer Bumper and his group of goons. How could she forget? They had been planning this showdown for weeks! “Shit, I’m so sorry, Jess. I completely forgot.”

_“What!”_ Jesse cried, so loud that Beca had to yank the phone away from her ear. _“You forgot? How could you forget?!”_

“Dude!” Beca snapped. “Stop yelling.” She groaned, “Look, I’m sorry, okay? But–” Her eyes darted to the small, plastic baby sitting at the other end of the couch, and her brows curved. “I don’t think I’m gonna be able to make it tonight.”

Jesse went silent and Beca’s face scrunched knowing the only way Jesse ever shut up is if he was really upset or bothered by something.

_“You’re– You’re joking… right?”_

Shit.

“No, dude,” Beca said. She hated the idea of letting Jesse down, but  what was she supposed to do? She had promised Chloe that she would take care of their fake baby that night. “Chloe left me with the baby doll tonight. I have to take care of it.” 

_“Seriously?”_ Jesse said, and Beca could tell he was getting upset. _“Beca, you know how important this game is! We lost to Bumper and his stupid friends last time, and he hasn’t let us live it down yet. We have to redeem ourselves!”_

Beca worried her bottom lip as she continued to stare at Bella. She felt like she had reached a pivotal cross road, and she wasn’t sure which path was the right one to take.

_“Beca,”_ Jesse suddenly said, breaking the brief moment of silence. _“The game is only going to take a couple of hours. We only lose twenty-four points for every hour the baby is left crying, and that’s **if** it even starts crying.”_ Okay. That was a fair point. _“You’ll only lose, like, forty-eight points at the most. You’ll still have a good score.”_

Fuck. Jesse was making a good argument. Forty-eight points wouldn’t do much to the overall grade of the project. Their score would still be in the high nine hundreds, which would definitely still be an ‘A.’

Maybe she _could_ go.

“I don’t know, Jess,” Beca hesitated.

_“Please,”_ Jesse pleaded.

Beca’s gut was telling her that this was not a good idea, but her heart was aching, too. How could she let her best friend in the whole world down? It wasn’t fair to him that they got saddled with the stupid project when they did. 

Beca took in a breath and sighed. “You’re sure it’s only gonna take a few hours?” she asked.

_“Of course!”_ Jesse said. Beca could practically hear the smile in his voice. _“Me you and Benji have been practicing and gotten so good. We’ll beat Bumper and his lame-o friends in no time!”_ Beca could feel a knot forming in her stomach. _“Two hours tops.”_

_Two hours tops..._

There was another moment of silence as Beca thought about it one last time before finally coming to her reluctant decision.

Fuck it. What was two hours, anyways? In two hours she’ll be back home and back with the dumb doll, and _hopefully_ not too many points would have been lost.

_It’ll be fine,_ Beca thought.

“Okay,” she said. “Alright. I’ll meet you at the park in ten minutes.”

_“Yes!”_ Jesse shouted. _“Thank you, **thank you!** You’re not gonna regret this, Bec.”_ Though there was a part of Beca that screamed that she would. _“We’re gonna kick Bumper’s ass tonight!”_

With his final cheer, Jesse ended the call and Beca was left with a heavy weight in her chest. But there was no time to dwell on that. Beca needed to get her ass up and changed for this freaking basketball game!

* * *

 

After running upstairs to her room to change out of her jeans and black t-shirt, into a tank top and basketball shorts, Beca ran back down to the living room where she almost crashed into her dad as he walked with two handfuls of grocery bags.

“Woah!” he said, taking a step back. “Slow down there, kiddo,” He noted her choice in wardrobe. “Ooh, where you off to?”

“The park,” Beca said, quickly maneuvering around him to grab her phone from the couch. It was then that her eyes landed on that freaking baby doll again and she groaned. “Shit,” she muttered. 

“What was that?” Her father asked as he walked by her towards the kitchen.

She spun back around, “Nothing!” and held Bella behind her. “Um… I just–” She started to walk backwards. “I forgot something upstairs. I’m gonna go grab it and then I’m going to leave.” 

Her father placed some of the bags on the kitchen counter before turning to look and quirk a brow at her. “Okay.”

Beca chuckled nervously and quickly ran back up the stairs to her bedroom. She scanned the area for a safe place to put the doll, but the only spot she could think of as being “safe,” was her bed. Beca shrugged before carefully placing Bella between her two pillows.

Beca figured the pillows would keep the baby upright, away from any risk of falling over and causing her to cry again. This was perfect!

As Beca continued to look at her, she tilted her head to the side in thought. What if Bella **did** start crying while she was gone? Beca didn’t want her dad to hear it and lecture her about being irresponsible on her project. 

Yeah, no. Beca **hated** her father’s lectures.

She decided to keep Bella between the pillows, but instead of leaving her out in the open, Beca drew her blanket and duvet up and placed it on top of the doll. She felt like she was smothering an actual baby to death, but she had to do what she had to do.

Beca needed to muffle that speaker.

Once Bella was nice and snug under the covers, Beca nodded her head and backed out of her room.

“Don’t you fucking cry,” she said, pointing at the doll before finally leaving and shutting the door behind her.

* * *

 

Two hours tops. That’s how long their game was supposed to last. That’s what Beca had reminded herself of when she got to the park and greeted her friends.

But when their game reached the three and a half hour mark, the only things Beca could think about were how tired she was and how she _really_ wanted to kick Bumper’s ass.

Sweat was dripping from her forehead as Beca stared Bumper down. One more point, that was all she was going to need to end the game. Just one. More. Point.

The ball was tossed into the air and despite being physically shorter than Bumper, Beca managed to jump just a smidge higher than him and knocked the ball over in Jesse’s direction.

“Jess, heads up!” 

Luckily Jesse was right there to catch and ran down to the other side of the court.

“Block him!” Bumper cried, directing his friends to chase after Jesse. “Come on, guys!”

Jesse made it halfway down the court before Donald jumped in front of him and spread his arms out. “Benji!” Jesse shouted, getting his best friend’s attention before throwing the ball his way.

Beca gasped when Benji almost dropped it, but he didn’t! And he quickly juked away from Unicycle, Bumper’s other obnoxiously dude-ish friend.

“Bro!” Bumper screamed, running to follow after Benji. “How could you let that nerd get passed you?!”

“He’s faster than I remember!” Uni cried.

Benji made it to the net, but just as he did, Bumper and Unicycle had caught up to him.

“Give it up, nerd,” Bumper smirked, keeping his arms wide so Benji couldn’t escape. “There’s nowhere to run.”

Benji’s eyes were wide with panic as they darted back and forth between Bumper and Unicycle, but then his gaze landed on Beca and he grinned as he looked back at Bumper.

“Hey, Bumper,” he said.

Bumper’s brow curved downward. “What?”

Without saying anything else, Benji bounced the ball between Bumper’s legs and watched as Beca caught it from behind him.

“Thanks, Benji!” Beca smiled, completely open and happy the boys had chosen to underestimate her. She bounced the ball once before turning towards the basket and shooting. She held her breath as it bounced around the hoop a few times, but then it finally came down and fell smoothly through the net. “Yes!” Beca cheered, jumping up and down as victory flooded through her veins. “Fuck, yes!”

Bumper gawked at the net. “Son of a bi–”

“You did it, Becaw!” Jesse cheered, roughly hitting Bumper’s shoulder with his own as he ran towards Beca. “We won!” He picked Beca up into a tight hug and she groaned when he practically squeezed her to death.

Benji quickly joined in on the hug and Beca was beginning to feel claustrophobic.

“Can’t… breathe,” she muttered.

“Oh, sorry,” Jesse said putting her down. “I’m just so happy!”

“Good shot, Beca,” Benji said, patting her back. 

Beca was exhausted and sore, but it felt good to win. 

She looked over to see Bumper throwing his hat onto the floor and kicking it in frustration, “Dammit!” and she snickered.

“Sucks to suck, Bumper!” Beca teased. She had always been a fan of shit talking.

Bumper glared at her, “Whatever, shorty!” He shook his head and grabbed his friends as he started to walk away in defeat.

Beca laughed. “Don’t be mad ‘cause this shorty just kicked your ass!”

Yeah. It definitely felt good to win. 

* * *

 

It was almost ten thirty by the time Beca got home. She knew her father would already be in bed, considering he was always up super early to go to work, so she tiptoed her way to the couch and collapsed onto it.

She was too tired and her legs were too sore to walk up the stairs anyway, so the couch was going to have to be her bed for the night. Beca had fallen asleep on the couch before. It was actually pretty comfortable.

A smile curved on her lips as she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep with thoughts of her victory. Beca was genuinely proud of herself for what she did, and she was looking forward to the following morning at school, completely forgetting about the fake baby that was screaming under the covers of her bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, fuck...
> 
> Follow me on Tumblr for sneak peeks and other work: not-so-average-fangirl
> 
> Stay tuned for more!


	4. Truths and Lies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smh... I'm so sorry I've been pretty M.I.A. lately. Life's been tough and very busy these last couple of months.
> 
> I also had gotten stuck on this chapter a while back and wasn't sure where to take it. I then decided last week that I would scrap the entire second half and go in a different direction. Thankfully, I liked it a whole lot more and was able to finally get out of that writer's block!
> 
> So, yay for that!
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy the chapter! :)
> 
> P.S. This chapter– along with future chapters– changes in P.O.V., so heads up for that!

The sound of Beca’s cell phone alarm going off is what suddenly woke her from her deep slumber. She jumped in surprise and the quick action, mixed with her sleepy daze, caused her to lose her balance and roll right off of the couch.   
 ****

“Ow!” Beca cried, rubbing her sore head as she was abruptly brought to her senses.

Shit. It was time for school. 

Beca groaned as she took her still ringing phone out of her pocket. She was thankful she already had the alarm set to go off every weekday, otherwise Beca knew she would have totally slept in and missed school altogether. 

Beca silenced her phone with a yawn and stretched herself out as she stood up from the floor. Her heavy eyes took a moment to adjust to the sunlight streaming in through the windows and her brow furrowed as the stickiness of her skin registered in her brain. 

She hadn’t taken a shower after the basketball game the night before, and now her body felt moist and humid. 

Gross. 

Beca seriously needed to get cleaned up ASAP. 

She languidly made her way up the stairs to her room, rubbing her eyes with another yawn as she pushed her bedroom door open. Her vision blurred as she turned the light on, quickly squinting her eyes until they adjusted to the brightness that came from the ceiling fan. 

Beca walked over to her closet, passed her bed and began to skim through her clothes. The groggy fog that had muddled Beca’s thoughts had faded, and it was then that she processed an odd and muffled sound coming from behind her. 

She stopped going through her clothes and tilted her head. 

What the fuck was that noise? 

And then Beca’s eyes suddenly widened.

“Oh, shit!”

Beca quickly spun around and ran to her bed. She pulled the covers off and the sound of Bella’s crying was now loud and clear.   
 ****

“Fuck. Oh my God, fuck!”

In a panicked state, Beca picked Bella up and pressed her wrist into her chest. Beca was glad she still had the bracelet on and sighed in relief when the doll chimed and the crying finally stopped. 

Beca fell back onto her bed with a plop and stared up at the ceiling.

How long had Bella been crying? There was no way for Beca to know for sure. She thought back to what Mrs. Harrington said about how the deduction of points worked and all she could remember– thanks to Jesse mentioning it again the night before– was that every hour of constant crying equaled about twenty-four points lost.

Okay…. So what was the worst possible scenario?

Beca sat up and thought about the idea of Bella crying the moment Beca left. The basketball game had started at six o’clock, so if Bella had been crying since then that would mean…

Beca glanced at the wall clock she had in her room. It was seven-ten in the morning and when she counted on her fingers how many hours had gone by, her eyes widened again.

Thirteen.

If Bella had been crying since six o’clock the following night, that meant she had been crying for thirteen hours straight.

Beca hopped off of her bed and ran to her desk to write out the math. Thirteen times twenty-four. That equaled…

Beca’s brow furrowed as she closed her eyes.

Three hundred and twelve points.

Holy mother of God. It had only been _the first_ night and Beca had already possibly cost her and Chloe three hundred and twelve points!

_What the actual_ **_fuck_ ** _, Mitchell?!_

A large weight suddenly crashed down on Beca’s shoulders as she slowly reopened her eyes and started to jot down another math problem. 

One thousand minus three hundred and twelve was…

**_Six hundred and eighty-eight?!?_ **

“Holy shit!” Beca cried, covering her mouth in shock as she took a step back.

No way. No. There was no way she already fucked up this badly on just the first night!

But, shit. If Bella really did cry that entire time, and if three hundred and twelve really were just taken out of their final score, then that meant Beca and Chloe were already getting a ‘D’ on the entire assignment.

“This can’t be happening,” Beca muttered to herself, running her hands through the top of her hair as she dropped down onto her desk chair in defeat.

How could she let this happen? And all because of some stupid basketball game!

What was she going to tell Chloe? **How** was she going to tell Chloe? Chloe was going to be _furious_ with her.

Shit. She might even kill her!

Okay. Well maybe she wouldn’t do that, but Chloe would definitely hate her guts for the rest of her life and never speak to her again.

Fuck. Beca didn’t want that.

Chloe Beale may be a straight, stuck-up, self-centered Pre-Madonna, but damn it, Beca still couldn’t resist the way she still wanted her to like her. Even if it wasn’t in the way Beca prefer her to.

How was she going to fix this?

Beca glanced over at the doll with her brow still furrowed.

Could she even fix this?

* * *

Beca chewed on her bottom lip nervously as she made her way up the street to the bus bench. She had never gotten ready so quickly before, but Beca figured she had already fucked up enough for one morning. There was no need to also be late. 

She could see Chloe’s distinctive red hair in the distance, patiently waiting on the bench, like she usually did, and it looked like she was on her phone.

Beca gulped as she stepped closer to her.

“Uh… Morning,” Beca muttered, plastering a smile on her face in hopes it would disguise her nerves.

Chloe’s head snapped up and she smiled. “Hey! There you are.” She stood up and looked down at Bella, whom Beca was still cradling in her arms. “How’d it go last night? Did she cry?"

Beca bit back the truth and cleared her throat. “Um, a few times,” she lied. “But it wasn’t too bad.”

_Pfft, yeah sure…_

“Really?” Chloe said. “Well that’s great.” She was smiling again and it only made Beca hate herself more for the blatant lie she was choosing to sell.

No. Strike that. Beca didn’t hate herself. She was– for the first time ever– disappointed in herself.

Wow. That was weird. Beca never thought she would ever feel that way about herself. Especially because of some stupid doll and girl she could never have.

“I’ll be honest, I was kind of worried about leaving her with you,” Chloe suddenly said, snapping Beca out of her self-loathing thoughts. “But, it was wrong of me to assume you wouldn’t take care of her, so–” Chloe nibbled on the corner of her lower lip. “I’m sorry I didn’t have more faith in you.”

Oh, Jesus. This was **so** not helping Beca’s guilt.

Beca smiled tightly and released a breathy chuckle. “It’s fine,” she said. “I don’t blame you for not having more faith in me.”

Chloe had no idea.

“Well,” Chloe grinned, glancing at Bella before looking back up at Beca. “You proved me wrong,” she said. “So, thank you.”

“Heh…” _Don’t thank me just yet._ “No problem.”

Chloe continued to smile at Beca until her eyes shifted to something behind her.

“Oh, the bus is coming,” she said, looking back at Beca. “Wanna sit with me?”

Beca’s eyes widened a bit. “You wanna sit together again?”

“Well, yeah,” Chloe grinned. “I wanna hear all about what you guys did together last night.”

_Awh, fuck._

“O-Oh… okay.” Great. Now Beca was going to have to make up an elaborate story as to what she and Bella did together the night before.

Which was absolutely **nothing!**

The bus pulled up next to them and Chloe boarded the vehicle first as Beca followed behind her. Beca watched as Chloe approached her usual seat, which was next to Aubrey, and she chuckled when she spotted an enthusiastic Jesse already sitting next to her.

Aubrey did not look happy.

“Oh, hey Aubrey,” Chloe said, looking like she was holding back a laugh. “Hi, Jesse.”

“Good morning, Chloe!” Jesse said, grinning widely. “Sorry if I stole your seat, but I wanted to make sure little Jonas here–” He smiled down at the baby doll sitting between him and Aubrey, and waved it’s small hand back and forth. “Rode safely between his mommy and daddy.”

Chloe snickered and glanced over at Aubrey.

“Kill me now,” Aubrey said, making a disgusted expression when Jesse suddenly put an arm around her.

“Ha,” he said, smiling. “She’s such a kidder.”

Chloe arched a brow, amused.

“Get off me!” Aubrey snapped, pushing his arm away.

Jesse chuckled and looked back up at Chloe. “I love it when she plays hard to get.”

“No worries, Jess,” Chloe said, holding back her laughter, not wanting to annoy Aubrey any further. “I was going to sit with Beca anyway.”

“Oh!” Jesse smiled.

“You are?” Aubrey asked.

Chloe nodded. “Mhm.”

“You can sit with me,” Stacie suddenly added, popping the top half of her body over Aubrey and Jesse’s seat.

“O-Oh, uh, well,” Chloe stuttered. That was weird. Beca never heard Chloe stutter before. “Thanks, Stace, but since Beca and I are partners, I already told her I would sit with her so we can talk about our baby.”

Stacie quirked a brow as her eyes flicked between Chloe and Beca. “Okay,” she said, looking back at Chloe with a weird smile plastered on her face. “That’s fine.”

From where Beca was standing, she couldn’t tell what kind of expression Chloe gave back to Stacie, but before she could ponder it any further, the sound of the bus driver’s voice redirected her attention.

“Ladies, if you don’t mind,” the older woman said. “I would like to move on to the next stop. Please sit down.”

“Sorry!” Chloe quickly said, snickering at Beca before asking. “Where should we sit?”

Beca’s gaze instinctively flicked over to her usual seat in the back. “We’ll just sit in my spot,” she said, nodding her head towards the end of the bus.

“Okay,” Chloe smiled, leading the way until they both sat down comfortably.

“Morning, Beca!” Benji greeted, grinning as he waved at Beca from the neighboring seat.

Beca chuckled. “Hey, Benji,” she said, dropping her bag onto the floor, between her legs.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

Beca responded without thinking. “Dude, I’m so sore,” not giving her brain a chance to choose her words carefully.

“Sore?” Chloe suddenly asked, leaning forward. “Sore from what?”

Beca’s eyes widened. “U-Uh…” _Way to go big mouth!_ “I’m sore, because…” _Come on, dude! Think!_

“B-Because we had a _really_ long zombie killing session last night!” Benji suddenly cut in, saving Beca’s ass.

Chloe quirked a brow. “You’re sore from playing video games?”

Beca shot Benji a thankful expression and he slightly nodded at her before she turned her head to face Chloe.

“Uh, y-yeah,” Beca said, trying her best to sound convincing. “My hands and thumbs are sore from so much playing.”

“Oh,” Chloe said, and then she made an amused face as she chuckled. “I guess I can see that.”

“Yeah,” Benji added. “It happens all the time. It’s always good to stretch your hands and fingers out before playing. Helps prevent cramping, too.”

Chloe’s lips tightened as she slowly nodded, unaware of the wide-eyed, and silently mouthed _“Thank you,”_ Beca gave her friend.

* * *

Sitting together for the bus ride turned out to be a great idea, or so Chloe thought, anyway. She and Beca got to have a nice conversation about the assignment, what Beca had done with Bella the night before, and they even managed to plan out who would take Bella for which class periods. 

Chloe never would have thought she would ever have an actual, intellectual conversation with Beca. Especially one that wasn’t interrupted by Beca’s usual sarcasm or inappropriate comments. It was like Beca had turned into a totally different person overnight. A person who seemed to suddenly care about the assignment. It was weird, but in a good way.

Maybe spending that alone time with Bella did Beca good. Maybe she was even starting to like Bella. Chloe wasn’t sure, but whatever caused this change, she was grateful for it.

They exited the bus together, and Chloe quickly spotted Aubrey, Stacie and Jesse waiting for them.

“Okay,” Chloe said, stopping and turning to face Beca. “So, I’m going to take her for first and second period, right?”

Beca nodded. “Then we’re going to switch off during recess and I’ll keep the doll until lunch.”

Chloe nodded back. “Sounds great.” She extended her arms out and wiggled her fingers playfully. “Can I have my baby, now?”

Beca’s brow rose and she snickered. “Don’t you mean _our_ baby?” she joked.

“Sorry,” Chloe laughed. “It’s just that you had her all night. I wanna spend time with her now.”

“What?” Beca said, flashing her a playful look that secretly made Chloe’s heart race. “Don’t tell me you missed this thing?” Beca held Bella up with one hand and Chloe gasped as she grabbed her.

“Hey!” she said, cradling Bella. “Don’t hold her like that.” She looked down to fix the small pink hat on Bella’s head, which had gone crooked, and she looked back up when she heard Beca giggling at her. “What’s so funny?” Chloe asked.

Beca shook her head. “You‘re so easy.”

Chloe narrowed her eyes. A natural spark of resentment for the comment flashed within her, but then the corner of Beca’s lip curved into a smirk, and Chloe couldn’t help feel giddy.

Was Beca flirting with her? Perhaps. Not that it really mattered. It wasn’t like Chloe could do anything about it. Besides, Beca always teased her, and as much as Chloe wanted it to mean something more, she was sure that this was just how Beca was.

No need to overthink things.

Chloe rolled her eyes. “Whatever,” she said. She glanced over at Aubrey, who was holding her own baby doll and frantically waving for Chloe to join her and Stacie. “Well, we better get going,” she said, turning her head to look back at Beca. “I’ll see you at recess?”

Beca nodded. “See ya then,” she said, saluting Chloe with two fingers and winking before stepping away and walking over to Jesse and Benji.

Chloe bit down on her lower lip to keep a smile from forming on her face and spun around to approach Stacie and Aubrey.

“Ugh, it’s about time you wrap it up,” Aubrey said, grumpily. “Jesse was really starting to get on my nerves.”

Chloe laughed. “Doesn’t he always get on your nerves?”

“Well, yeah,” Aubrey said, “but now we’re partners for this project, and he won’t leave me alone!”

Stacie snickered. “That boy’s got it bad for you.”

“Ew,” Aubrey said, taking a moment to dramatically shiver in disgust. “Thank God it’s only for the weekend.” She looked at Chloe. “I can’t believe you’re still stuck with Beca Mitchell, though. Working with her must be irritating.”

“Actually,” Chloe said. “She hasn’t been that bad so far.”

“What?” Aubrey said.

“Really?” Stacie added, quirking a brow.

“Yeah,” Chloe said. “I mean, yesterday she was her usual, annoying self, but last night she took care of Bella and this morning–” She shrugged, “I don’t know. It’s almost like she’s starting to actually care about the assignment.”

Aubrey’s jaw had slacked, genuinely surprised by Chloe’s words, and a small smirk began to curve on Stacie’s lips.

“Interesting…” she said, and Chloe eyed her.

“What?” she asked. “Why did you say it like that?”

“Because,” Stacie said. “Beca has never been the type to care about school. I’m just wondering if maybe she’s starting to give a shit because you’re her partner.”

“Wait, what?” Chloe said, taken aback by Stacie’s assumption.

“What are you saying?” Aubrey gawked.

Stacie shrugged. “It’s no secret that Beca is a lesbian and Chloe’s one of the hottest girls at our school. I’m just saying that maybe she’s got the hots for you.”

Chloe’s eyes went wide and damnit, she was sure the sudden heat on her cheeks meant that they were also changing color.

Stacie was eyeing her suspiciously then, her brow quirking as her eyes flicked down to the middle of Chloe’s face.

Shit.

Chloe waited for Stacie to say something about it, feeling her chest tighten with anticipation, but then suddenly Stacie was looking at Aubrey, and Chloe released a breath in relief.

“Will you close your mouth already?” Stacie said. “A bug is going to fly in there if you don’t.”

“Well, excuse me, but I’m in shock, Stace!” Aubrey said.

Ugh. Always such a Drama Queen.

Stacie snickered. “Why? It’s just a theory.” Stacie half-shrugged and smirked at Chloe. “A pretty good theory, too, if you ask me.”

Chloe gulped, but thankfully didn’t have to respond, because Aubrey beat her to it.

“Well, even if that was true,” Aubrey said, looping her free arm with Chloe’s. “Beca should know that she doesn’t stand a chance with Chloe.”

Chloe chuckled nervously. She needed to act like she agreed with Aubrey and _really_ needed to steer Stacie’s suspicions away.

“Besides, Chloe’s straight,” Aubrey added, and it took everything in Chloe’s being to not show any kind of reaction to that statement. “It’s a lost cause,” Aubrey laughed. “Right, Chlo?”

Stacie’s brows were slightly raised as she looked at Chloe for her response and Chloe laughed with her.

“Right.”

_You’re such a liar..._

* * *

Bella hadn’t cried as much as Chloe thought she would. Luckily there were other students in the school with the same assignment, which was nice considering it granted the students some leniency from the teachers whenever one of the dolls would randomly start crying during class. 

At least Chloe didn’t have to worry about getting into any trouble because of it.

When recess came around, Chloe wasn’t as reluctant about handing Bella over to Beca as she probably would have been, had Beca not taken the reigns so well the night before.

Or so Chloe thought.

She handed Bella over to Beca and would be lying if she said she didn’t think about the baby for the entire length of her following two class periods. Having a major distraction wasn’t something Chloe was happy about. All that did was make focusing in her classes that much harder, but Chloe couldn’t help it.

This fake baby assignment was **very** crucial to her final grade, and if Chloe wanted the future she had been planning to have for years, then for at least this one weekend, Chloe was going to have to spread her focus a little thinner than usual.

The switch off at lunch time went just as smoothly as it had during recess, although this time around Beca was in a bit of a rush since it was pizza day and she wanted to make sure she got in line for it in time to receive a “fresh” slice. It made Chloe laugh at how much of a serious mission that was for Beca.

Before Chloe knew it, sixth period came around and it was the one part of Chloe’s day where she knew she was going to have to spend the entire fifty minutes with Beca. This could either go really well, or really bad.

Although, Chloe had to admit, so far her time with Beca, though sometimes annoying, wasn’t as bad as she initially thought it would be. Hope was in the air for a more well behaved Beca Mitchell.

It worried Chloe, for only a moment, when the sixth period bell rang and Beca was nowhere to be found. That is, until Mrs. Harringston walked up to the front of the class to speak and was quickly cut off by the sudden appearance of Beca, as she rushed in through the doorway.

“Sorry,” Beca said, holding a hand up at Mrs. Harrington as she power walked over to her desk. “Sorry.”

That was new. Beca never rushed into class like that, and certainly not this early in the period. Most of the time, Beca would casually walk in at least five minutes late with a classic smirk curved on her lips. But this time, it was almost as if she had been rushing to make it on time.

Weird.

“Wow,” Mrs. Harrington said, her brows lifted in surprise as she watched Beca take her seat. “I’m impressed, Beca. This is the earliest you’ve ever come to my class.”

Beca snickered as she sat down. “Guess I’m just full of surprises, Mrs. H.”

Ah. There was that usual cocky attitude Chloe had grown to lo– notice…

_Smooth..._

The older woman considered Beca’s comment, “Guess so,” then shifted her focus from Beca back to the rest of the class as she stepped closer to the white board and restarted the lesson.

Chloe fought to keep her eyes forward, focused on whatever it was Mrs. Harrington was saying, but Chloe ultimately couldn’t resist the urge to turn her head and look back at Beca.

So she did.

Beca looked as though she was still slightly catching her breath and Chloe furrowed her brow at her when they made eye contact; silently asking why Beca had appeared to have rushed to class this time.

But of course Chloe didn’t get a straight answer. After all, it _was_ Beca Mitchell she was asking, and the irritating brunette simply responded with a sly smirk and a wink that made Chloe’s stomach flutter.

Ugh. Why was Beca like this?

Chloe shook her head, rolling her eyes as she turned her head back around to face the front of the class and trying her best to ignore the way her nerve endings still tingled as she thought back to the way Beca had looked at her.

* * *

Mrs. Harrington spent some time asking the students how their time with the babies had gone so far, and afterwards, walked over to her desk to grab a stack of white papers. 

“I’m glad to hear you guys are adjusting well to parenthood,” she joked, earning a few chuckles from some of the students. “But before you guys are sent off on your own for the entire weekend, I want to make sure you all get to know your partners better.”

She started her stride up the first row of students, placing a single paper on each desk as she passed them and continued to speak.

“For the rest of the period, I would like you guys to sit with your assigned partner and answer these questions about each other.” When Mrs. Harrington got to Chloe, she hesitated on handing her the next paper, and instead, grabbed one from the bottom of the stack and placed it on Chloe’s desk with a weird smile.

That was odd.

“Fill out your questions with your partner’s answers, and I’ll collect them at the end of class.” When she was finished with all of the students, she walked back over to her desk. “Now go,” she said, waving a hand dismissively as she sat down on her computer chair. “Disperse.”

With their teacher’s permission, the students began to rise from their seats and move about the room. Chloe stared at the questions listed on her paper, subconsciously nibbling on her lower lip as she hesitated to move.

She hadn’t read every question on that list, but the ones she had glanced over seemed to get pretty personal.

Beca Mitchell was the last person Chloe wanted to open up to and get personal with. It was going to take a bit of effort for her to lie about some of these answers, though then again, when Chloe thought about it, she was used to faking her way through daily life.

So what was another forty minutes?

With a final exhaled breath, Chloe stood up from her chair and turned to make her way over to Beca’s desk.

“And I want honest answers, people!” Mrs. Harrington suddenly shouted over her computer screen. “I want you all to actually bond with your partners. If I find your responses too generic, I will dock you a point. Capiché?”

Chloe instantly froze in place. “What?” she said aloud, spinning on her heels to find her teacher grinning confidently at her desk.

What the hell was that about? She was going to take points away if someone’s answer was too generic?

Who does that?!

Chloe’s jaw slacked in utter shock and her brows curved in defeat when she realized she was going to have to be honest with Beca Mitchell whether she liked it or not.

“Shit.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehe... nice try, Chloe. You're not getting out of this one so easily!
> 
> Let me know what you guys are thinking!
> 
> Follow me on Tumblr for sneak peeks and other work: not-so-average-fangirl
> 
> Stay tuned!


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